You need a hard rock and metal playlist for the weekend, and we've got you covered! Every Friday, we will curate a new playlist inspired by the last few days (and maybe the next few weeks). We're including new music that we've heard and loved, some recent releases we can't get out of our heads, songs from bands who made the news in the past seven days, and some classics from anniversaries that we've celebrated. Here's some of the highlights of the latestWeekly Wire:

OK, we're still pretty stoked about Judas Priest: we love Firepower, which came out last week (and which we loved), about the fact that we can now write our name in Judas Priest font, and about their tour which just kicked off, and which features them playing "Saints in Hell" for the first time, ever. So we're kicking off this week's Weekly Wire with "Saints in Hell" followed by a newer song, "Traitors Gate." We'll be at Priest's New York show this weekend (March 17), so look for our concert review and photo gallery on Sunday.

We're looking forward to the return of Alice In Chains, who have announced that they are releasing their next album -- their third with frontman William DuVall. The band are pretty much the gold standard for being able to move on after the tragedy and trauma of losing a frontman. They've actually added to their legacy in their new incarnation, which is no mean feat. So we included one of their DuVall-era classics, "Pretty Done."

Stone Temple Pilots must surely be looking to Alice's second phase for inspiration, as they start out a new phase of their own with new frontman Jeff Gutt. Their self-titled debut is out today, check out "Middle of Nowhere."

Rage Against the Machine hasn't been active in years, but last weekend conservative British pundit Nigel Farage decided to call his podcast "Farage Against the Machine," which woke up Rage - or at least their twitter account, where they referred to him as a "Pissweasel." So, we decided to include "Killing in the Name" on this week's playlist, which segues right into Prophets of Rage's self-titled song, a cover of the Public Enemy classic. We're stoked to see the Prophets supporting Avenged Sevenfold this summer. A7X's M. Shadows told us that he realized that "Our audience may kick and scream a little bit when they don't want to hear the political stuff or they want a band that they're more comfortable with that they hear on the radio stations next to Avenged Sevenfold all the time." But, he added, "To us, it is about expanding everyone’s horizons including ourselves." We also included tracks from the other bands on the tour, Three Days Grace and Ho99o9.

There weren't a lot of new albums this week, but we're looking forward to next week, when Monster Magnet and the Sword have new albums coming out. Have a great weekend!